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This thesis presents a research project in the field of oxygen system fire safety relating to the heterogeneous burning of iron in normal gravity and reduced gravity. Fires involving metallic components in oxygen systems often occur, with devastating and costly results, motivating continued research to improve the safety of these devices through a better understanding of the burning phenomena. Metallic materials typically burn in the liquid phase, referred to as heterogeneous burning. A review of the literature indicates that there is a need to improve the overall understanding of heterogeneous burning and better understand the factors that influence metal flammability in normal gravity and reduced gravity. Melting rates for metals burning in reduced gravity have been shown to be higher than those observed under similar conditions in normal gravity, indicating that there is a need for further insight into heterogeneous burning, especially in regard to the rate-limiting mechanism. The objective of the current research is to determine the cause of the higher melting rates observed for metals burning in reduced gravity to (a) identify the rate-limiting mechanism during heterogeneous burning and thus contribute to an improved fundamental understanding of the system, and (b) contribute to improved oxygen system fire safety for both ground-based and space-based applications. In support of the work, a 2-s duration ground-based drop tower reduced-gravity facility was commissioned and a reduced-gravity metals combustion test system was designed, constructed, commissioned and utilised. These experimental systems were used to conduct tests involving burning 3.2-mm diameter cylindrical iron rods in high-pressure oxygen in normal gravity and reduced gravity. Experimental results demonstrate that at the onset of reduced gravity, the burning liquid droplet rapidly attains a spherical shape and engulfs the solid rod, and that this is associated with a rapid increase in the observed melting rate. This link between the geometry of the solid/liquid interface and melting rate during heterogeneous burning is of particular interest in the current research. Heat transfer analysis was performed and shows that a proportional relationship exists between the surface area of the solid/liquid interface and the observed melting rate. This is confirmed through detailed microanalysis of quenched samples that shows excellent agreement between the proportional change in interfacial surface area and the observed melting rate. Thus, it is concluded that the increased melting rates observed for metals burning in reduced gravity are due to altered interfacial geometry, which increases the contact area for heat transfer between the liquid and solid phases. This leads to the conclusion that heat transfer across the solid/liquid interface is the rate-limiting mechanism for melting and burning, limited by the interfacial surface area. This is a fundamental result that applies in normal gravity and reduced gravity and clarifies that oxygen availability, as postulated in the literature, is not rate limiting. It is also established that, except for geometric changes at the solid/liquid interface, the heterogeneous burning phenomenon is the same at each gravity level. A conceptual framework for understanding and discussing the many factors that influence heterogeneous burning is proposed, which is relevant to the study of burning metals and to oxygen system fire safety in both normal-gravity and reduced-gravity applications.

This thesis presents the development of a Sensor Tower Platform (STP) comprised of an array of Passive Infra-Red (PIR) sensors along with a classification algorithm that enables the STP to distinguish between human intrusion, animal intrusion and clutter arising from wind-blown vegetative movement in an outdoor environment. The research was motivated by the aim of exploring the potential use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) as an early-warning system to help mitigate human-wildlife conflicts occurring at the edge of a forest. While PIR sensors are in commonplace use in indoor settings, their use in an outdoor environment is hampered by the fact that they are prone to false alarms arising from wind-blown vegetation. Every PIR sensor is made up of one or more pairs of pyroelectric pixels arranged in a plane, and the orientation of interest in this thesis is one in which this plane is a vertical plane, i.e., a plane perpendicular to the ground plane. The intersection of the Field Of View (FOV) of the PIR sensor with a second vertical plane that lies within the FOV of the PIR sensor, is called the virtual pixel array (VPA). The structure of the VPA corresponding to the plane along which intruder motion takes place determines the form of the signal generated by the PIR sensor. The STP developed in this thesis employs an array of PIR sensors designed so as to result in a VPA that makes it easier to discriminate between human and animal intrusion while keeping to a small level false alarms arising from vegetative motion. The design was carried out in iterative fashion, with each successive iteration separated by a lengthy testing phase. There were a total of 5 design iterations spanning a total period of 14 months. Given the inherent challenges involved in gathering data corresponding to animal intrusion, the testing of the SP was carried out both using real-world data and through simulation. Simulation was carried out by developing a tool that employed animation software to simulate intruder and animal motion as well as some limited models of wind-blown vegetation. More specifically, the simulation tool employed 3-dimensional models of intruder and shrub motion that were developed using the popular animation software Blender. The simulated output signal of the PIR sensor was then generated by calculating the area of the 3-dimensional intruder when projected onto the VPA of the STP. An algorithm for efficiently calculating this to a good degree of approximation was implemented in Open Graphics Library (OpenGL). The simulation tool was useful both for evaluating various competing design alternatives as well as for developing an intuition for the kind of signals the SP would generate without the need for time-consuming and challenging animal-motion data collection. Real-world data corresponding to human motion was gathered on the campus of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), while animal data was recorded at a dog-trainer facility in Kengeri as well as the Bannerghatta Biological Park, both located in the outskirts of Bengaluru. The array of PIR sensors was designed so as to result in a VPA that had good spatial resolution. The spatial resolution capabilities of the STP permitted distinguishing between human and animal motion with good accuracy based on low-complexity, signal-energy computations. Rejecting false alarms arising from vegetative movement proved to be more challenging. While the inherent spatial resolution of the STP was very helpful, an alternative approach turned out to have much higher accuracy, although it is computationally more intensive. Under this approach, the intruder signal, either human or animal, was modelled as a chirp waveform. When the intruder moves along a circular arc surrounding the STP, the resulting signal is periodic with constant frequency. However, when the intruder moves along a more likely straight-line path, the resultant signal has a strong chirp component. Clutter signals arising from vegetative motion does not exhibit this chirp behavior and an algorithm that exploited this difference turned in a classification accuracy in excess of 97%.

Thesis is concerning urbanistic treatment of a chosen part of Zábrdovice, a catastral disctrict in the city of Brno. Analyses problems of the area, searches for causes and solutions of problems regarding living there or going through the area. Offers a possible solution to make the area passable for pedestrians, car and cyclists, and to improve its continuity to the center of Brno and make it more attractive.

This thesis describes design gallery of aviation technology and traditions at the airport in Brno Part of my thesis is focused on urban solution of area layout its interconnections with near districts “Komín“ and “Medlánky“. There is new pedestrian, cycling paths, operational and logistic roads inside the complex layout. This design supposed to keep the two existing historic hangars and demolishing remaining buildings with subsequent completion of necessary objects. Priority and the main idea is to keep compositional and visual axis to ensure visual contact with all airport operational parts to ease of orientation. According to this principle is mass and platform solved with object “gallery”. This object in addition to the exhibition space is also used for administration and operation department of the gallery. In separate part there is ensured catering in form of restaurant with associated technical, operational and sanitary facilities. The gallery is designed to visually and physically separate section used by pilots and airport vehicles from visitors to avoid dangerous situation. Other buildings I have designed in my project are “the clubhouse”, airport administration, emergency accommodation, social activity space mainly designed for aircraft-model pilots and the air traffic control tower. These objects creates border between premises restricted for aero club and visitors.

The subject of my thesis is the project of Gallery aviation technology and traditions of aviation at the airport Medlánky in Brno. The project also includes urban solution of area airport in Medlánky and linking urban areas Medlánky and Komín by newly designed roads and walking paths. The area of airport consists of the two historic hangars and newly designed buildings for the servise and maintenance of aircraft, for the laboratories and the test room of aviation technology, from the control tower and the gallery aviation technology, in which there is also bistro-cafe. The building with gallery aviation technology formed a compact space for visitors with the other buildings, but at the same time the building is separated from the private area, where the planes are moving freely. In the building with gallery, there are besides the exhibition space designed also the bistro-cafe, areas for management and operation of gallery, technical and sanitary facilities, restoration workshop of historic aircraft, conference halls, meeting and training rooms, clubhouse and accommodation. The building serves as a curtural - public building, wheelchair accessible is available throughout the object.

This thesis deals with the possibility to evaluate cognitive and emotional traits and their relations to job positions and functions. The basis is to create a set of tests which could be used during a hiring procedure while deciding among candidates. It also suggests how to classify users based on a set of tests and thereby provide support in choosing the right job. The thesis gives a brief outlook of individually tested traits, describes a proposal of a web application and its implementation, describes implementation of neural network classifier and presents obtained results.

The subject of this Diploma thesis is building and technological project of a residential house in Brno, which contain the implementation of the underground car park and residential building, which has three above-ground floors. Attention is focused mainly on the technological processes of bottom building. Text section contains the technical report on the structural and technological project, study implementation of major technological stages of building, technical report of construction site equipment, technological regulations, inspection and test plan, study of noise, plan health and safety at work, the design of the main building machines and mechanisms including transport routes. The attachment section contain time and financial plan construction-object, time deployment of machines, plan of material resources, time schedule, technology standard, budget, drawings of construction site equipment, verification of tower crane construction and schema of processes concreting.

The subject of my dissertation is to describe construction technology project of the administration building in Trencin. I focused on the budget, work schedule, environmental protection, appropriate setup of temporary objects on the construction site and efficient machine assembly. Result of work represents possible construction progression with focus on site condistions.

The subject of this diploma thesis is the construction and technological solution of the construction of the campus building Bohunice - object C. This building is a new building located on several unfinished parcels. The diploma thesis contains technical reports, technological regulations of the selected works, control and test plans for these works, design of the machine group, the transport relations in the narrower and wider surroundings of the construction, the budget budget, the timetable, the design and realization of the tower cranes.